Abstract
During the 1950s and 1960s, Norwegian life changed socially, economically, culturally—comprehensively. One manifestation of this change was the new products that found their way into daily life. The car, the TV, and the home freezer, for example, became embedded in Norwegian lifestyles—and pivotal to the country’s transformation. Modern technologies signaled that Norwegian society was advancing; the car, TV, and home freezer were powerful symbols of progress and the modern way of life. Indeed, the significance of the home freezer surpassed its practical use: the freezer’s introduction and its growth spurred new lifestyles and new consumption regimes.1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Victoria de Grazia, “Changing Consumption Regimes in Europe, 1930–1970,” in Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Societies in the Twentieth Century, ed. Susan Strasser, Charles McGovern and Matthias Judt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 59–83;
Victoria de Grazia and Ellen Furlough, eds., The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
Wiebe Bijker and John Law, eds., Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992).
Christine Myrvang, Sissel Mykleburst, and Brita Brenna, Temmet eller uhemmet: Historiske perspektiver på konsum, kultur og dannelse (Oslo: Pax, 2004);
Christine Myrvang, Forbruksagentene: Slik vekket de kjøpelysten (Oslo: Pax, 2009); de Grazia, “Changing Consumption Regimes in Europe, 1930–1970.”
Johan Schot and Adri Albert de la Bruhèze, “The Mediated Design of Products, Consumption, and Consumers in the Twentieth Century,” in How Users Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology, ed. Nelly Oudshoorn and Trevor Pinch (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003).
Terje Finstad, “Varme visjoner og frosne fremskritt. Om fryseteknologi i Norge, ca. 1920–1965” (PhD diss., Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2011);
For further investigations of this in other realms than the domestic, see: Terje Finstad, “Cool alliances: Freezers, frozen fish and the shaping of industry-retail relations in Norway, 1950–1960,” in Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945, ed. Ralph Jessen and Lydia Langer (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 195–210;
Terje Finstad, “The means of modernization. Freezing technologies and the cultural politics of artificial cold, Norway 1940–1965,” in History of Artificial Cold. Scientific, Technological and Cultural Issues, ed. Kostas Gavroglu (London: Springer, 2014).
“Instruks for Industrikomiteen oppnevnt ved Kgl. Res. av juli 1943,” Industrikomitéene i London og New York, box 5, file: Industrikomitéen i London: Oppnevnelse av medlemmer etc. The National Archives of Norway. See, for example, Stig Kvaal, “Janus med tre ansikter: Om organiseringen av den industrielt rettede forskningen i spennet mellom stat, vitenskap og industri i Norge, 1916–1956” (PhD diss., Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 1997).
Oscar Edward Anderson Jr., Refrigeration in America: A History of a New Technology and Its Impact (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1953).
Roger Thévenot, A History of Refrigeration throughout the World (Paris: International Institute of Refrigeration, 1979), 348.
This blend of Soviet-inspired planning ideals and an American-inspired industrial ethos functionally ended in 1952, when parliamentary discussions on price legislation thwarted the ambitions of even the most optimistic supporters of the planned economy. Francis Sejersted, The Age of Social Democracy: Norway and Sweden in the Twentieth Century, trans. Richard Daly (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).
Anna Jorunn Avdem and Kari Melby, Oppe først og sist i seng: Husarbeid i Norge fra 1850 til i dag (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1985);
Anna Jorunn Avdem, Husmorparadiset (Oslo: Samlaget, 2001).
For an insightful (and ironic) look at the intervention of science in private homes, see the movie Salmer fra kjøkkene, directed by Bent Hamer (Sandefjord, 2003).
Arthur Saunes, “Kommersiell Kjøling,” in Glimt fra norsk kjøleteknisk historie, ed. Nils W. Pettersen-Hagh and Sæbjørn Røsvik (Oslo: Norsk kjøleteknisk forening, 1986), 212–30.
Nils W. Pettersen-Hagh, Frysing og fryselagring i USA, Rapport fra studietur 48-23-p2-1-50004 15. april til 15. juni 1955 (Oslo: Norsk Fryseriforening, 1956), 43;
Nils W. Pettersen-Hagh, “Refleksjoner omkring stagnasjonen i salget av dypfrosne matvarer i Norge,” Norsk Fryserinæring 3 (1957): 1–5.
See, for example, Stig Kvaal and Astrid Wale, En spenningshistorie: Trondheim Energiverk gjennom et århundre (Trondheim: Trondheim Energiverk, 2000).
Bjørn Austigard, “Frå stabbur til frysar: omkring konservering og lagring av mat i Romsdal,” in Årbok Romsdalsmuseet (Molde: Romsdalsmuseet, 2006), 182–99.
Rolf Kirkvaag, “Hjemmefrysere — litt statistikk,” Kjøleteknikk og Fryserinæring 5 (1963): 101–2.
Nils W. Pettersen-Hagh, “Norsk Kjøleteknikk 1965,” Kjøleteknikk og Fryserinæring 2 (1966): 30–2.
Berge Furre, Norsk historie 1914–2000: Industrisamfunnet — frå vokstervisse til framtidstvil, vol. 6, Samlagets Norsk historie 800–2000 (Oslo: Samlaget, 1999); Avdem, Husmorparadise.
Converted to the value of the Norwegian kroner in 2008, a freezer cost approx. 21,000 kroner. Statistics Norway, “Consumer Price Index Calculator,” accessed April 29, 2009, http://www.ssb.no/vis/kpi/kpiregn.html; Historisk Statistikk 1994, Norges offisielle statistikk (Oslo: SSB, 1995), 262.
Statistics Norway: Statistiske analyser nr. 28. Beholdning og anskaffelse av varige forbruksvarer i private husholdninger (Oslo: SSB, 1976), 25.
See Faith Fenton and June Darfler, “Foods from the Freezer: Precooked or Prepared,” Cornell Bulletin for Homemakers 692 (1946); Karin Fredrikson, Konserveringsboken: Dypfrysning, hermetisering, saftning og syltning (Oslo: Cappelen, 1966);
Britt-Marie Andersson, Dypfrysing (Oslo: Cappelen, 1969).
Myrvang, Forbruksagentene; Susan Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework (New York: Pantheon, 1982).
Bjørg Eliassen, Vi dypfryser (Oslo: Tanum, 1965), 12, 265.
Nils L. S. Jacobsen, “Innlandet,” Norsk Fryserinæring 6 (1949): 1–2.
Rolf Kirkvaag, “Dypfrysingen i Norge,” Norsk Fryserinæring 12 (1960): 3–13.
Rolf Kirkvaag, “Dypfrysingens fremtidsmuligheter,” Kjøleteknikk og Fryserinæring 6 (1962): 150–4.
Terje Finstad, “Familiarizing Food: Frozen Food Chains, Technology and Consumer Trust, Norway 1940–1970,” Food and Foodways 21 (2013): 22–45.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Terje Finstad, Stig Kvaal, and Per Østby
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Finstad, T., Kvaal, S., Østby, P. (2015). Tackling Norwegian Cold: The Breakthrough of Home Freezing. In: Lundin, P., Kaiserfeld, T. (eds) The Making of European Consumption. The Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137374042_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137374042_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-47680-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-37404-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)